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Profane 3: BAD BLOOD Chapter 1 (**smut warning**)

Profane 3: BAD BLOOD Chapter 1 (**smut warning**)

*timidly opens door and pokes head in*

Hi, I’m still alive. I’m here. I’ve even been writing a little bit though I haven’t been posting about it on this website, which is a massive oversight from me. Maybe I’ll catch up on posts I should have posted. Maybe.

In the meantime, I did want to say I’m trying to work on and finish Profane #3 for release this year. It’s been languishing at around 13000 words for the past two years, actually since I published A Sanguine Solution, and I WANT to finish it. I WANT you guys, the few of you still out there who gaf about these characters (hopefully there’s a few of you? uwu) to finally get some answers.

For now, here’s the first chapter. It’s smut. It’s almost happy smut. How often does that happen?

BAD BLOOD – CHAPTER ONE

January 2013 – Capitol Hill – Lachlan

“You and Ethan were talking for a long time tonight,” Vector said in a soft voice.

The werewolf had stripped out of his nice clothes until he stood next to the bed in only his tight boxer briefs, bare chest glowing softly with the warm yellow lamplight bathing that half of the bedroom. The sight made Lachlan’s mouth dry—so dry that he had to remind himself not to swallow. The last thing he wanted tonight was to aggravate his throat and send himself into a coughing fit.

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ATTN: Book Reviewers (ARCs for B&B4 A Sanguine Solution)

ATTN: Book Reviewers (ARCs for B&B4 A Sanguine Solution)

Hello my lovelies! I wanted to write up a quick life update because things have been a little crazy out here in my neck of the woods and whenever life gets busy it has a habit of affecting book releases.

If you don’t follow me on twitter, I’ll start by saying that I’ve started working as a barista again for the holidays at a very busy starbucks. It’s a great opportunity to work with a lot of really cool people but it did come at a time when I’ve been struggling to balance so many creative projects. I’ve also been participating in NaNoWriMo, vlogging the first half of November, and finishing up edits on B&B #4. As I’ve mentioned here a few times, I’m intending to release Blood & Bone #4: A Sanguine Solution in the very near future. Originally I had hoped it would be out at the end of October but now we’re looking at “before Christmas.”

Since there’s a little bit more of a lead on the release, I thought I would take the opportunity to offer ARCs of B&B4 to interested book reviewers in exchange for an honest review after release. Seeing as this is the fourth book in a series in an extended universe, I do have a short little questionnaire for you to fill out to request an ARC if you’re interested:

>> https://goo.gl/forms/efMZ9UDCl3VnzPUK2

Copies should be made available sometime in the next two weeks, so please fill out the form and let me know before then!

Sneak Peak: Blood & Bone #4 – A Sanguine Solution 5/?

Sneak Peak: Blood & Bone #4 – A Sanguine Solution 5/?

The countdown to Book 4 continues this week with another snippet from B&B 4: A Sanguine Solution.

Read Part 1 and Part 2 and Part 3 and Part 4.

B&B 3.5 Remainders, an f/f novella set during The Symbiotic Law is also now available through amazon!

Chapter 2b

Patrick

Pat met Sabira Mallory in the parking lot. She had a newspaper raised over her head to fend off the rain.

“I spent most of last night making phone calls,” she said.

Their trip to the club near yesterday’s body had been frustratingly fruitless. Despite Mallory’s assertion that someone would have to be on the premises to get ready for the evening’s crowd, they had been met with a quiet, locked building. Pat’s wolf senses had confirmed that there hadn’t been anyone home.

“Hopefully Lynch has a name for us,” he murmured, holding the door open for her.

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Sneak Peak: Blood & Bone #4 – A Sanguine Solution 4/?

Sneak Peak: Blood & Bone #4 – A Sanguine Solution 4/?

The countdown to Book 4 continues this week with another snippet from B&B 4: A Sanguine Solution.

Read Part 1 and Part 2 and Part 3.

B&B 3.5 Remainders, an f/f novella set during The Symbiotic Law is also now available through amazon!

Chapter 2a

 

Ethan

Once upon a time, Ethan Ellison had been a simple man, doing a simple job for the Seattle Police Department, living an uncomplicated life. He had fucked whomever he wanted to fuck. Had drunk. Had danced. Had solved simple crimes involving petty people smart enough to abuse magic but dumb enough not to do it very well.

It was easy to see how that all fell apart; to track the moments he went awry. It began that morning Police Captain Jordan Augustas called him into her office to meet his temporary partner: Patrick Clanahan, werewolf, Major Crimes, kind of a dick but ultimately a decent sort of guy.

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Sneak Peak: Blood & Bone #4 – A Sanguine Solution 3/?

Sneak Peak: Blood & Bone #4 – A Sanguine Solution 3/?

The countdown to Book 4 continues this week with another snippet from B&B 4: A Sanguine Solution.

Read Part 1 and Part 2.

B&B 3.5 Remainders, an f/f novella set during The Symbiotic Law is also now available through amazon!

Chapter 1c

“Sorry,” the wolf muttered, though there wasn’t anything apologetic about his tone, only a hint of confusion and more bitterness than was probably healthy to hear in the voice of the man who claimed to be in love with you.

“Are you tired?” Pat asked. “Hungry? I could fix you something.”

“It’s too early for dinner.”

“I’ll start something,” he said, disappearing into the kitchen.

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Sneak Peak: Blood & Bone #4 – A Sanguine Solution 2/?

Sneak Peak: Blood & Bone #4 – A Sanguine Solution 2/?

 The countdown to Book 4 continues this week with another snippet from B&B 4: A Sanguine Solution. Go Here to read the first part.

B&B 3.5 Remainders, an f/f novella set during The Symbiotic Law is also now available through amazon!

Chapter 1b

Ethan

He was relieved when the email came through, informing him that his request for time off had been granted effective immediately.

Ethan closed Pat’s laptop and got up from his desk—it was spare, like the rest of the werewolf’s townhouse, neat and tidy in a way that suggested the room wasn’t used very often, rather than that it was frequently picked up.

The townhouse was quiet. Pat’s cousins, who lived next door, were gone for the rest of the month on a snowboarding trip over winter break. Ethan relished the peace, soaked it up until it weighed down his bones. He slid onto the couch and stretched out on his stomach, cheek pressed into the rough cushion. He breathed slowly, pushing all the air out of his lungs and holding his breath until they ached before he broke and inhaled again. A weight that he could sink under.

From his position, Ethan could see the edge of his book—it wasn’t even his book, it belonged to a dead man, inherited through something like attrition—poking out from between the cushions of one of the matching campaign chairs. He’d read it cover to cover by now, there wasn’t much else to do since he had yet to find a secret stash of paperbacks, DVDs or even porn. Pat Clanahan, it turned out, wasn’t much of a reader.

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Cover Reveal & Sneak Peak at Blood & Bone #4: A Sanguine Solution

Cover Reveal & Sneak Peak at Blood & Bone #4: A Sanguine Solution

Blood & Bone Book Four is almost here!

I’ve been teasing a follow-up novel to The Symbiotic Law for a while now. I began drafting a fourth book in the series all the way back in February 2015 but it’s been a crazy couple of years between life getting in the way and other projects cropping up to steal my attention. But I’ve really excited to say that FINALLY, finally book 4 is almost here! In fact, it looks like it might be out as early as the first week in November.

Last week I released a bonus novella that bridges some of the time between books 3 and 4 in the series, which you can pick up a copy of here: Blood & Bone 3.5 Remainders.

Book Four Cover Reveal

 A Sanguine Solution picks up very soon after the end of the main events in Book 3 and will hopefully answer some questions about how Ethan and Patrick finally found their happy ending together. It also includes several familiar faces from the previous books such as Detective Sabira Mallory, as well as Vector Clanahan and Lachlan Graham who were introduced to the universe in their own trilogy, The Profane SeriesA passing familiarity with The Profane Series will be make some things in A Sanguine Solution more clear, but ultimately this book is about Ethan and Patrick dealing with their evolving relationship.

Sneak Peak at A Sanguine Solution

And lastly, over the next two weeks I’ll be releasing snippets from Chapters 1 and 2 of A Sanguine Solution. Keep reading for the first of these snippets and make sure to follow me on twitter (@LiaCooperWrites), my mailing list, or here at the blog to find out as soon as Book 4 is released!

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Random WIP Snippets

Random WIP Snippets

IDK you guys. While my current project (a standalone paranormal i’ve nicknamed Oly!Necro!Prof if you follow me on twitter 😉 ) eats my brain and grows far beyond its planned length or scope, here’s a random snippet of an epic, sprawling scifi story i desperately want to write but am too afraid to write (it’s got human augmentation/disability, f/m/m, thieves, artists, insurance investigators, and references to Donna Tartt)

From the unwritten TRIPTYCH

Agent Carmine felt the distinctive tug as the cross-planetary sweep drew to its final destination. Near-instantaneous sweep travel had its uses, but she could never quite grow accustomed the feeling that came with it, like being sucked through a straw by the force of a mach wind tunnel.

She blinked into the blinding metropolitan sun and then down at her feet, just to make sure that they were both there, planted shoulder width apart on the white plastine Arrivals platform.

“Good morning. Are you the police detective?”

Carmine looked up at the docent standing next to the platform. Hidden behind a pair of bug-eyed dark glasses, her augmented eyes swept him from prematurely balding head to the dusty toes of his shoes. In the face, he did not appear more than twenty-five.

Her stomach flipped over as she slouched down the ramp, left hand clenched tightly around the handle of her slim silver briefcase.

“No,” she said. She flicked back the edge of her jacket to reveal a holographic badge pinned to the under lapel; it displayed her picture, name, and employee IDENT mark. “I’m with the insurance company.”

The docent swallowed. “They sent me out here to meet the detective.”

“Then you’d better wait for them.”

The weather over the city burned too hot to be comfortable in a dark purple suit, and Carmine regretted the lack of foresight which had led her to dress that morning—after The Call, as the blood rushed loud in her ears from anticipation—without first checking the forecast. She shook out her arm as she walked up to the post-post-post High Modern Institute for the Arts, and shoved both tight velvet sleeves up into the crook of her elbows.

This high above ground level, all of the cloud scrapers were faced in light reflective materials that did a good job of fending off the planet’s heat, but the glare they cast cut through the darkest glasses to leave one’s eyes watering. The High Modern Institute was the same, shaped in soft, sweeping curves made to look like white adobe, but were, no doubt, composed of some recycled plastine hauled out of the ocean on the back of a fishing trawler after there were no fish left to trawl. The architects and city planners made a good show of things though, composing this sprawling slice of Old Earth against a backdrop of washed out blue vaseline sky and wispy white clouds.

Carmine stepped through the automatic doors and showed her badge to the security attendant at the turnstile. They were closed that morning, but her company’s name was enough to gain attendance to the inner lobby—even if they hadn’t seen fit to send someone outside to wait for her. From there it was a matter of presenting herself to the Customer Service desk and waiting until a managing docent could be fetched.

She slouched against the chest high counter, one sneakered foot pressed flat against the smooth surface, and her fingers clenched still tighter around her briefcase. Her dark glasses remained on while she waited so as to facilitate her examination of the Institute’s employees. The building may have been closed to the public, but it appeared that no one had seen fit to give the exhibit guides day off, and now they clustered around the lobby in little cliques, whispering and staring towards the East Wing.

“You didn’t waste any time,” a man’s voice grumbled from her left.

 <—— and some random protagonist brainstorming art cuz never say i can’t procrastinate

IDK, I just find writing scifi really scary. Anyone else feel that way?

Sneak Peak: Vapor Trail 4a

Sneak Peak: Vapor Trail 4a

Read Chapter 1

Read Chapter 2

Read Chapter 3a

Read Chapter 3b

Preorder Vapor Trail for $0.99

Chapter 4a

July Fourth Weekend – Queen Anne Hill – Lachlan

“Don’t panic,” Vector whispered under his breath, which did more to put Lachlan on edge than it reassured him.

“Why?” he asked, turning to the werewolf. He jumped a little when the other man grabbed his hand and squeezed his fingers. It sent a flutter of anxious tingles through Lachlan’s arm and made his stomach jump. He would have blushed if he hadn’t already been sweating under the outrageous summer sun. Wasn’t it supposed to rain on the Fourth of July? It always had before.

Instead of answering, Vector straightened his shoulders and greeted the woman approaching them across the field—he was exaggerating when he called it a field, but this deep in the city, it felt like a field to have such an extravagantly large backyard. Lachlan had sort of gotten the impression that Vector came from a comfortably well-off family, but he was starting to reassess just how comfortable from the looks of this house, as well as the townhouse in Upper Queen Anne Hill.

The woman—she was half a head shorter than Vector, but not too much shorter than Lachlan himself—had dark hair and pale blue eyes that shone almost grey from her pale skin. An air of authority weighed down the lines of her shoulders, and Lachlan couldn’t miss the way the other members of the pack unconsciously shifted around her, moving out of the way without the woman having to make a sound. She stopped in front of them, eyes flicking down to their linked hands, brushed across Lachlan’s face, and settled on Vector.

“Auntie,” the wolf said, temporarily letting go to lean down and wrap her up in a brief hug.

Lachlan twitched—this much be the pack matriarch, the alpha: Teagan Clanahan.

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Sneak Peak: Vapor Trail 3b

Sneak Peak: Vapor Trail 3b

Read Chapter 1

Read Chapter 2

Read Chapter 3a

Preorder Vapor Trail for $0.99

Chapter 3b

The McClanahan pack had settled in Seattle over one hundred years ago. Before the Great Fire, even. They’d originally built this house for the entire pack: three flours plus a finished attic; sixteen bedrooms, including the master; four full bathrooms; two living rooms; dining room, with a long handcrafted dining table; and a huge rustic kitchen. A detached garage had been added to the property in the fifties. Now, only the main family lived there regularly, but there were always a couple of spare bedrooms open for anyone who needed a place to stay.

Vector had lived in the house briefly in his youth, right after his mother had died, while his father was struggling to find his footing. It had been comforting to be surrounded by family. His Aunt Teagan was his alpha first and foremost, but she had also been a little bit like a mother to him growing up, especially once his own father had passed away when he was in his early twenties.

Vector was equal parts nervous and excited to introduce Lachlan to everyone. It had been his dream to do so all those years ago when they’d been in the SPD together. Now, he was less certain what it meant for them, less certain that they were headed towards a future together. But still, he yearned for Lachlan to be accepted by his pack.

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